FAQ

WHAT IS A HACKATHON?

A hackathon is a short collaborative programming session designed to rapidly develop new ideas and implementations. Usually teams form around common interests, develop a reasonable goal, and devise a plan to use their team’s skills to reach that goal in the time allowed. The time constraint forces teams to “make it work” instead of “make it perfect”, and adds a bit of excitement. [via Cleanweb Worldwide]

WHY ARE HACKATHONS A GOOD THING FOR THE FOOD MOVEMENT?

While many associate the word with a criminal act, “hacking” actually grew out of the desire of for programmers to explore technology systems and find out how they could be re-configured or re-programmed to function in new and better ways. Like the first few generations of computer software and hardware industries, food and agriculture are highly proprietary, consolidated industries. And just as the hacking community seeks to understand how a technology works, people are increasingly looking to know who and how their food is produced.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

You should apply if you are passionate about technology, user-centered design and changing the way we eat. Participants will include:

Chefs, restauranteurs, servers and anyone working in the restaurant or foodservice industry

Developers

Designers

Data scientists

Entrepreneurs

Executives

WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY TO PARTICIPATE?

This isn’t your typical hackathon. We’ve partnered with Studio Industries to develop a toolkit for hackers to help you attack the weekend better and faster, and facilitators will be on hand all weekend long to support teams as needed. We offer delicious and nutritious meals – breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and coffee. Our hackathons are top-notch, and that comes at a cost. Your ticket price covers all of the elements we feel are necessary to bring the best and brightest minds together to tackle big problems and produce kick-ass hacks.

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN JOIN A TEAM?

Teams can have between 1-5 people.

CAN I SUBMIT A SOLUTION TO A DIFFERENT PROBLEM, OUTSIDE OF THESE CHALLENGE AREAS?

We will only be judging submissions and awarding winner to solutions that solve the challenges as outlined.

WHY ARE ALL SOLUTIONS REQUIRED TO BE OPEN SOURCED?

The food industry is all about closed and proprietary innovation, which hurts our health, economy and environment. We think there is a real opportunity to change the status quo by bringing the best and brightest minds together to tackle big problems and make key insights and source code available for anyone to learn from and build upon. For this reason, all solutions must be submitted under an open source license approved by the Open Source Initiative.

DO I NEED TO LIVE IN THE NYC AREA TO HACK?

You may participate virtually, but you must have a team member present to be eligible for prizes.